Painting

 

The artist Liu Xiaodong visited the town of Prato in Italy, the most densely populated Chinese place in all of Europe, where generations of Chinese people have lived and worked diligently for the local garment and leather factories, and documented their lives with his brush. How he portraits the character make me reflect how to present the condition of controversy.

 

His work vividly portrays the leisure activities of the Chinese during their work breaks, playing cards in the Prato factories.
His detailed portrayal of the characters made me think about how to make the ‘protagonists’ more ambivalent, confused and powerful.
In addition, the artist himself writes that “it is human to want to live in a better place, and that migration brings life and trouble”, which made me think about how migration is not only a problem for the migrant, but also for the place where he or she arrives.